PT - JOURNAL ARTICLE AU - CV Herst AU - S Burkholz AU - J Sidney AU - A Sette AU - PE Harris AU - S Massey AU - T Brasel AU - E Cunha-Neto AU - DS Rosa AU - WCH Chao AU - R Carback AU - T Hodge AU - L Wang AU - S Ciotlos AU - P Lloyd AU - R Rubsamen TI - An Effective CTL Peptide Vaccine for Ebola Zaire Based on Survivors’ CD8+ Targeting of a Particular Nucleocapsid Protein Epitope with Potential Implications for COVID-19 Vaccine Design AID - 10.1101/2020.02.25.963546 DP - 2020 Jan 01 TA - bioRxiv PG - 2020.02.25.963546 4099 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/09/2020.02.25.963546.short 4100 - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2020/03/09/2020.02.25.963546.full AB - The 2013-2016 West Africa EBOV epidemic was the biggest EBOV outbreak to date. An analysis of virus-specific CD8+ T-cell immunity in 30 survivors showed that 26 of those individuals had a CD8+ response to at least one EBOV protein. The dominant response (25/26 subjects) was specific to the EBOV nucleocapsid protein (NP). It has been suggested that epitopes on the EBOV NP could form an important part of an effective T-cell vaccine for Ebola Zaire. We show that a 9-amino-acid peptide NP44-52 (YQVNNLEEI) located in a conserved region of EBOV NP provides protection against morbidity and mortality after mouse adapted EBOV challenge. A single vaccination in a C57BL/6 mouse using an adjuvanted microsphere peptide vaccine formulation containing NP44-52 is enough to confer immunity in mice. Our work suggests that a peptide vaccine based on CD8+ T-cell immunity in EBOV survivors is conceptually sound and feasible. Nucleocapsid proteins within COVID-19 contain multiple class I epitopes with predicted HLA restrictions consistent with broad population coverage. A similar approach to a CTL vaccine design may be possible for that virus.